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This book reports on a longitudinal study of the acquisition of pragmatic markers in written discourse in a third language (English) by secondary students living in the bilingual (Spanish and Catalan) Valencian Community in Spain. It examines pragmatic transfer, specifically positive transfer, in multilingual students from a holistic perspective, taking into account their linguistic repertoire and using ecologically valid classroom writing tasks in a longitudinal study. It tackles the issue of task-based language teaching from a multilingual perspective by presenting a study which takes place in natural classroom contexts where real classroom tasks are used to explore the interaction between languages in multilinguals. The book combines a focus on multilingual language development and pragmatics and discusses the resources multilingual learners take to the classroom.

Transicionesis a thorough ethnography of seven Latino students in transition between high school and community college or university. Data gathered over two years of interviews with the students, their high school English teachers, and their writing teachers and administrators at postsecondary institutions reveal a rich picture of the conflicted experience of these students as they attempted to balance the demands of schooling with a variety of personal responsibilities.Todd Ruecker explores the disconnect between students' writing experiences in high school and higher education and examines the integral role that writing plays in college. Considering the almost universal requirement that students take a writing class in their critical first year of college, he contends that it is essential for composition researchers and teachers to gain a fuller understanding of the role they play in supporting and hindering Latina and Latino students' transition to college.Arguing for situating writing programs in larger discussions of high school/college alignment, student engagement, and retention,Transicionesraises the profile of what writing programs can do while calling composition teachers, administrators, and scholars to engage in more collaboration across the institution, across institutions, and across disciplines to make the transition from high school to college writing more successful for this important group of students.

FOR DECADES, research has focused on American Sign Language/English bilingual education for d/Deaf and hard of hearing students whose families used English or ASL. However, a growing population of d/Dhh children come from households where languages other than English (e.g., Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese) are used. In a longitudinal case study, the authors document the K–12 educational pathway of a deaf Latina student. Anecdotal records, semistructured interviews, assessment data, and document reviews of the participant’s school and clinical records are used to develop the case study. The findings provide the basis for recommendations for future research and for critical factors to consider to improve the education of d/Dhh Multilingual Learners (DMLs). These include ensuring appropriate educational placements, addressing early communication and language needs, determining effective instructional techniques and assessments, strengthening the L1 to support L2 learning, and providing students with opportunities to learn their heritage language.

Do proficient, bilingual readers of Spanish and English use different strategies when reading passages written in each language? Are there differences in the frequency with which proficient, bilingual readers of Spanish and English use particular strategies when reading these passages? Are there patterns in the manner in which the subjects use the strategies to construct interpretations of the passages? If so, do the patterns vary across passages? A three‐phase data analysis revealed that, whether reading Spanish or English texts, subjects drew upon an array of strategic processes to establish connections and integrate understandings. And, when they ran into difficulty, their use of metacognitive strategies often allowed the subjects to continue constructing meaning.

This study documents experiences of 1.5-generation immigrants from Mexico and examines how they have navigated the intersections of language, education, and employment. It is framed inside the question: in the context of San Antonio, Texas, in what ways does language learning in public schools impact 1.5-generation immigrants in their academic and employment trajectories? Additionally, it documents the participants’ learning experiences in relationship to their family, work, and pursuit of higher education. Nine students participated in the study. Of these, seven participated in two focus groups, and two were interviewed and recorded. Data collected was recorded, transcribed and analyzed using narrative analysis to generate themes, trends, and patterns. It was found that some participants successfully negotiated higher education as well as employment despite challenges with academic language acquisition. Others continued to explore their educational options. The majority of the participants attributed their academic and professional successes to support provided by family members and community connections. More work must necessarily be carried out to amplify the understanding of ways in which 1.5-generation students transition into higher education and employment.

This study compares native English, Spanish, Lao, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Arabic, and all other ELL students over one, two, three, and four-year spans to determine if certain groups appear to face more difficulties in developing early reading mastery by third grade. This study also examines whether socio-economic status impacts the differences in literacy growth. Findings suggest that Spanish speaking students are more likely to begin school at a disadvantage in reading compared to ELL peers and continue to be more likely than ELL peers to be at risk of reading failure by third grade, after four years of sheltered instruction and tiered interventions with ESOL-certified staff. Longitudinally, Lao speaking students are increasingly likely to be at risk for reading failure over successively longer intervals. Among ELL students at low risk for reading failure, On the other end of the achievement spectrum, Spanish speaking students are less likely than ELL peers to be in the highest achieving group early in their schooling and continue to be so after four years of instruction.

This study explores the effects of a Two-Way Bilingual Immersion (TWBI) program on language majority and minority students. The fundamental hypothesis was that the process of receiving instruction in two languages (English and Spanish) throughout elementary school (i.e., attendance at a TWBI school) would help the native Spanish-speaking students and not have a negative effect on the native English-speaking students in the performance of core academic areas (reading, mathematics, writing), and that this beneficial effect would carry through Junior High and High School in which instruction was delivered through a \"business as usual\" English-only model. This is a longitudinal quasi-experimental study with an ex post facto, non-randomized, matched-pairs design. A multi-level matching procedure was used to match students from the TWBI elementary school (treatment group) with comparable students from throughout the school district (control group) beginning in third grade. Eleven annual cohorts of students from the treatment school were matched on a student-by-student basis on seven variables - cohort year, student's primary language, years of enrollment in the program, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, and 3rd grade performance – with comparable students from within the school district. These eleven cohorts of 3rd graders were then tracked to the end of elementary school, middle and high school and measured on their reading, writing, and math achievement scores at each year. ACT scores were also collected in 11th grade. We found that students who graduated from the TWBI program had significantly higher CSAP reading, writing and math scores at the end of their elementary school when compared with their matched pairs. Native Spanish-speaking students who graduated from the TWBI program achieved significantly better in reading and math, and somewhat better in writing across Junior High through 10th grade than the matched control group. Native English-speaking students who graduated from the treatment program achieved as well as their matched counter parts in writing and math across Junior High through 10th. Furthermore, in the reading area, native English-speaking students who graduated from the treatment program achieved significantly better than their matched controls. We found that the overall program main effect was small in all three CSAP areas (reading, writing, and math), with at least three interesting trends. First, effect sizes (ESs) tended to be higher for native Spanish-speaking than for native English-speaking students in all three domains, and especially in grades 8, 9 and 10. Second, ESs tended to get bigger for native Spanish-speaking students and smaller for native English-speaking students across Junior High and High School (time) in all three domains. Third, ESs for native Spanish-speaking students in math were the biggest ones at each grade level, with only the exception of 9th grade. Also, math ESs for Spanish-speaking students were bigger than reading and writing ESs for this language group. ESs for native Spanish-speaking students in math were bigger than all ESs for English-speaking students. The treatment program had its biggest effect in the math area for native Spanish-speaking students. Results also indicate that all students who attended the TWBI program performed better in ACT English, reading, and math scores when compared with their matched pairs. ACT Reading scores were significantly higher for native Spanish-speaking students than for their matched pairs, but this was not the case for English, math and science. Native English-speaking students from the treatment group performed equal to or better than their matched counterparts. Furthermore, students from the treatment program obtained mean ACT scores significantly higher than the control group in English, reading, and math but not science. Effect sizes were medium and large for native Spanish-speaking students in English and Reading while they were small to medium for native English-speaking students in these areas, a pattern that is similar to the one that was observed in grades 6 to 10. Findings suggest consistent support for the two-way immersion program over matched control students across all three achievement areas in Junior High and in three of the four areas evaluated in High School. It appears the greatest effect for native English speakers may be in reading, while native Spanish speakers may benefit more in writing and mathematics. Limitations to generalizability and causal inferences due to the small sample sizes and inherent weaknesses of the research design are noted. The analysis of attrition revealed that native Spanish speakers from the TWBI program were more likely to stay in the school district than native Spanish speakers from other programs. This was an unexpected but important finding. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Several Web sites on ESL (English as second language) are presented. These include Reading Is Fundamental: Supporting Second Language Learners at http://www.rif.org/educators/rifexchange/programdescriptions/203_index.mspx; Writing and English as a Second Language at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/curriculum/languagearts/resources/writingesl/writingesl.pdf; and ESL through Music at http://caslt.org/research/music.htm.